Meet Some of Our Staff
Check the link near the bottom of the
page to verify employment dates.
Lyndell Bleyer, Director, MSW
Lyn has been with CISRS since its
inception in 1978. Lyn holds an M.S.W and has an extensive background in human
service fields, including aging, employee satisfaction, HIV, housing, mental
health, prenatal care, sexual abuse, and substance abuse. Lyn is retiring from
Western at the end of July 2003, but will be available for consulting.
Kathy Joiner, Research Associate
Kathy worked at CISRS from January
1989 through August 2000. She worked directly with many of CISRS's clients in
developing, implementing and overseeing research projects. Prior to her position
with CISRS, Kathy worked in the President's Office of Research and Public Service
at University of California, Berkeley.
Ruth Ann Reynolds, Research Associate,
MSW
Ruth Ann joined the staff for the
second time in January 2001, having done her MSW internship with CISRS in 1991.
Ruth Ann has worked with the statewide Michigan Foster and Adoptive Parent Association
and Michigan Family Independence Agency before returning to CISRS. She also
worked at Michigan State University for many years.
Ruth Fischer, Office Manager
Ruth joined the staff in May 2000.
She has a strong background in accounting and brings with her extensive business
management experience.
Daniel McCarthy, Technical Operations
Dan joined the CISRS staff in the
Fall of 2000. He brings technical computing skills that complement the balance
of the staff. Web design, on-line surveys, data analysis, database design/maintenance
and computer programming are his specialties.
Sivakumar Rajmohan, Research Assistant
Siva joined the CISRS staff in the
Fall of 2002. A very reliable and dependable staff member, Siva very patiently
and accurately oversees data entry and analysis of survey data utilizing Excel
and SPSS or Statistical Package for Social Sciences data analysis software.
Wendy Wintermute, Consultant, PhD
Wendy first offered her services to
CISRS as a consultant when she moved to Kalamazoo from Colorado in 1999. Wendy
had been the director of an organization similar to CISRS at the University
of Southern Colorado's School of Social Work. She produced a community indicators
report for Pueblo and has participated in numerous research studies. Wendy,
who was director of Building Bridges, also works with the Nonprofit Alliance
and Poverty Initiatives.
Recent Prior Employees and Interns
Jason Demorest
Jason joined CISRS as a Research Assistant
fall 2001. He is a creative writing and philosophy major. After assisting with
the SAD Screening for Adolescent Depression project, which focused on high school
freshmen, Jason began investigating ways to put together resources on campus
for WMU students who are experiencing depression.
James Ekema, VolunTEEN
James joined CISRS as a volunteer
during the summer of 2001, and returned for a second year in 2002. He enjoys
working with computers and numbers. He also likes music, and can play a variety
of percussion instruments.
Lynne Harrison
Lynne fulfilled a sociology internship
requirement with a placement at CISRS during the Spring and Summer of 2001.
She took major responsibility for coordinating the Employment and Training Needs
Study for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.
Sarah Husain, VolunTEEN
Sarah joined CISRS as a volunteer
during the summer of 1999 and has continued to volunteer each summer during
high school. She enjoys tennis. Sarah's father was a Graduate Assistant with
CISRS in 1978.
Carla Sharp
Carla fulfilled a sociology internship
requirement with a placement at CISRS during the Spring and Summer of 2001.
She took major responsibility for coordinating the Choices in Healthcare Careers
study and the Survey of Interdisciplinary Rural Health Education Alumni.
Antonia Stolze
Toni joined CISRS as an intern during
winter 2002. She is a sociology major. The primary project Toni has been working
on is an Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing. In addition to gathering data
on demographic and housing characteristics about the county, Toni designed the
survey used to measure the general population's knowledge of antidiscimination
laws, barriers to housing access and respondents personal experiences with housing
discrimination.
Deana (Loar) Strudwick
Deana completed her second year of
social work internship requirements with a placement at CISRS during the Fall
of 2000 and Winter of 2001. As Policy, Planning & Administration was her concentration,
she was involved in a wide range of activities including writing a grant proposal,
developing budgets, developing questionnaires, managing and analyzing data and
writing narrative interpretation.
Other Staff and Faculty
CISRS believes strongly in service
learning, through which both community organizations and students benefit. CISRS
provides rich research experiences for graduate assistants and interns, many
of whom come from business, computer science, computer economics, engineering,
geography, psychology, public administration, social work, sociology and statistics.
In addition to the few paid student
positions, CISRS also welcomes serious students who want experience. While many
of these are volunteers who are interested in the experience, others enroll
for credit as an independent study or an internship. Some students qualify for
work study.
The regular CISRS staff are occasionally
supplemented by faculty who work with us to assist on one of our many research
projects or on a project that they bring to us.
Staff and Intern History
CISRS put together a list of all the
graduate assistants and students who have worked at CISRS since 1978. This will
enable employers to check dates of employment, as well as enable us to brag
about our students as they make a reputation for themselves.
Dear former students... if your name
is not on the list or the dates do not match, please let me know. We are constructing
the database from memory and old archived records going back more than 27 years.
Because the list is so long, we are only including those who worked for CISRS
at least one full semester (or research project) and had satisfactory to excellent
performance appraisals. Also, if you have a photo of yourself, either current
or from the time span you were at CISRS, please send to me.
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